Reviews for Pen of Fire: John Moncure Daniel

The average rating for Pen of Fire: John Moncure Daniel based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-09-20 00:00:00 Steve Thompson I had trouble sympathizing with, let alone respecting a journalist who created massive conflicts of interests by sleeping with the rappers (Nas, 50 Cent) regularly featured on the covers and pages of her magazine. Clearly the owners of Source were petty, ignorant, sexist and poor businessman. One of the only upsides of the book is seeing their empire start to crumble. That being said, the authors constant rationalizations do not come close to justifying why she woke up everyday and did their vindictive, pathetic bidding. As the Editor in Chief of Source for five years Osorio never once said no and apparently had no qualms about publishing work she was ashamed of. She printed pieces to get back at her bosses rivals, sold out friends, okayed libel and fired writers on the whims of her superiors. Never did she say "I am the Editor in Chief and I'm not going to do this" Ultimately though, this is a memoir and she can only detail what occurred -- which she seemingly does honestly and in detail. And in the process makes the reader wonder just how its possible that the editor in chief of a major US publication is able to write so poorly.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-27 00:00:00 Rashad Vandross Ok now, Kim gave us a look inside the world that she loves---the hip hop music industry--- and takes us behind the scenes from a womans point of view at the "Hip-Hop Bible." I celebrate Kim O. for standing up and saying i will not be a puppet anymore. She was at the Source during some of Hip-Hop's most pivotal moments and gave us some of the best writings on the happenings while she was there. I loved the book, while i explored it, all i could think about was me reading the issues back in the day and now i have the real inside dirt to what was behind it all. Kudos Kim O.